September 30, 2016
Brothers and Sisters:
Effective Monday, October 3rd, 2016 the Newark Teachers Union will begin Phase I of its Respect the Contract initiative. This initiative will be incremental and is necessitated by the districts’ refusal to respect the work or worth of teachers, aides and clerks at the negotiations table. While Superintendent Cerf never misses an opportunity to advertise the successes we have made in literacy and math or the decline in the city’s dropout rate, his negotiations team has failed to translate that into any meaningful show of appreciation at the bargaining table.
While we continue to negotiate and are working on new talk dates, there has been no respectful movement at the table towards a fair collective bargaining agreement that respects member working conditions and student learning conditions. That the district now finds itself in a budget deficit of their own profitable design does not create in us any sense of responsibility. Time and again, we warned them and they took no heed, and now they want to cry poverty and default on their most important asset-you.
Teachers will continue to provide instruction and other supports to students. However, teachers, aides, clerks and other education workers will:
NOT perform the duties of a report card administrator [eg: merging, printing reports etc] (with the exception of clerks assigned this duty);
NOT perform the duties of a “computer repairman.” The district got rid of Technology Coordinators; if they need those services, they need to bring them back. They were trained; you were not and will be held responsible for damage. Let them call a technician!
NOT being used as “Coverage” outside of the confines of the contract. Must be voluntary and covering staff must be compensated. The district’s inability to provide adequate substitutes does not constitute an emergency. Fill out and submit a coverage form.
NOT participate in NPS meetings/ activities of any kind before, or outside of the instructional day (see Arbitration Award #4713, regularly scheduled staff meetings are excluded, as per the contract);
NOT participate in any professional development workshops/ activities/ discussion forum/ webinar sessions on NPS initiatives that are not included in the calendar;
NOT act as Attendance Counselors by searching for students in city wards. Students who are not picked up at dismissal time shall be delivered to an Administrator in the Main Office;
NOT complete Unit Plans. The contract only speaks to Lesson Plans;
NOT complete “Homework” distributed during Grade Level Meetings. (See Arbitration Award #4713)
Please visit the “Respect the Contract” Phase I Toolkit on our website http://newark.nj.aft.org/news/respect-contract-phase-i-toolkit for resources and uniform notifications you can use to help us make this campaign a success that translates at the Negotiations table.
In Solidarity,
John M Abeigon